18 Environmental Our Carbon Credit Portfolio As the latest IPCC science shows, emissions cuts today are more valuable than in 5 or 10 years. Even if society is able to draw down emissions after surpassing 1.5°C (“overshoot”), certain impacts then become irreversible. As IPCC working group co-chair Hans Otto Pörtner said , “By restoring degraded ecosystems and effectively and equitably conserving 30 to 50% of Earth’s land, freshwater and ocean habitats, society can benefit from nature’s capacity to absorb and store carbon , and we can accelerate progress towards sustainable development, but adequate finance and political support are essential.” This science drives our investment in nature. We do this through carbon credit projects that prevent carbon from entering the atmosphere, called carbon sinks, and through projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere by regenerating natural ecosystems. Over time, we’re increasingly focused on removals. Nature-based retention and removals: Nature has been regulating the earth’s climate since time immemorial. So investing in existing and potential carbon “stocks” in nature is important ( IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land ). From stocks like terrestrial to marine forests to regenerative agriculture, some of the best solutions to healing the planet are right beneath our feet. Methane avoidance and destruction: In addition to nature-based solutions, the IPCC emphasized that addressing methane emissions is critical because of its outsized impact on near-term global heating. So we have added high-quality methane avoidance and destruction projects to our portfolio. Building a High Quality Portfolio of Carbon Credit Projects Carbon markets aren’t perfect, so we conduct five levels of due diligence, described below in Table 3, before carbon credit projects become a part of our portfolio. In addition to mitigating climate change, these carbon credit projects strengthen and protect vulnerable and disadvantaged communities by: protecting biodiversity, increasing food security, protecting drinking water, generating new jobs and educational opportunities, and providing climate resilience.